The Black Hole
by FractalHN
Summary: An adult Ruby, now working as a detective. Pulp crime involving a strange variant of Dust. Expect new chapters soon!
1. Beginning of Act One

Act One

Accretion Disk

Inspector Rose ascended the gangplank of the airship _Justice,_ handcuffed prisoner in tow. The plainclothes officer wore a trench coat and jeans, her VCPD T-shirt not doing her any favors in remaining undercover. The sunken-cheeked youth she was escorting had maintained an expression of rebellious spite on the drive to the dock, but once he saw the ground begin to shift away as the prison lifted off he deflated. Ruby couldn't tell if he was green from fear or motion sickness, but either way it would be a benefit in the interrogation. He was the latest in a series of arrests of low-profile gang members in lower Vale. She caught him at a burglary with a few other teens, who had managed to get away. Ruby wasn't worried, though. Kids like him always sold out their friends if it meant a commuted sentence. Handing him off to a constable, Ruby looked to her coat pockets for the Dust crystals she had recovered from the scene. Nothing especially valuable, though something about them seemed...off. They were cloudy and dark, not vibrant and warm like they should have been. It was possible that they were just dirty, though. At least, that's what Ruby told herself at the time.

Having sent them down to the lab for testing, Ruby decided to head up to _Justice_'s observation deck. She always liked to stare down at the city below from the ship and be happy knowing that she had kept it safe. _Justice_ was the Vale City Police Headquarters. The size of an aircraft carrier with enough firepower to level ten city blocks, it was one of the few places where Ruby knew she could be ready for any contingency.

A few hours later, after letting the thug sweat in the cells, Ruby finally had him brought up for questioning.

"Hello, I'm Inspector Rose. Let's start things off simple, shall we? What's your name?"

"I know my rights, and I don't have to tell you anything," he replied smugly. "I haven't even gotten my phone call yet, don't you guys have to give me a phone call?"

"I'm afraid that's not how it don't get a phone call unless we want you to have one, and while it's true that you're not required to say anything at all, it would be a shame if you were convicted of burglary when, if you had only told us about your friends, you would have only been an accomplice." She smiled sweetly, hoping that her point had managed to penetrate the thick shell of hair gel coating his head.

"Okay, so my name. I can do that. I still wanna call a lawyer, but I guess this can't hurt. I'm Rob. Rob Hood."

"Alright, Rob, let's talk about some other names. The names of your friends at that nice curator's house, for instance."

A few minutes later and Rob was walking off the gangplank with a grin on his face to mirror that of the cops who now had a full list of suspects for the robbery.

"Oh, and by the way, Rose," said one of her coworkers, "The lab said that they've finished testing that Dust you gave 'em."

And so, Ruby set off to the lab to meet with the one enthusiastic forensic technician and five twentysomethings who had watched too many police procedurals.

"Hey, Ruby!" the forty-year-old doctor exclaimed. "I checked out the Dust you gave me, and while there's no chemical difference from regular Burn, it's more efficient. You get more energy for less dust! I don't know where your found this stuff, but it's revolutionary!"

"Thanks, Jake," she replied somewhat less energetically. "I think I'll take it back for now."

"Oh, well, okay, but you should really look into getting some more, or at least figuring out where it comes from."

Ruby was yawning and about to collapse where she stood, so she retired to her bed in the barracks. Ordinarily, she would have gone to her apartment in Vale, but something seemed to be sapping her strength. So, she trudged off to be and slept like a log.

_So this is Chapter One. What did you think? Please leave a review, constructive if you can manage it. I'm perfectly open to suggestions, up to and including the suggestion that I find a new hobby. I sincerely hope you don't feel like we both wasted our time on this._


	2. Corporate Headquarters

As she slept, Ruby dreamt of the past, and of her team. They had worked together for years, fighting evil and injustice; however all good things must pass. After a few years of the physical and mental strain that being a hunter put on you, most people gave up the life. Assuming, that is, that they hadn't already been killed. Yang and Blake had elected to remain at Beacon as instructors. Blake had always sought to find and spread knowledge, while Yang just wanted to be the one to operate the launchers on the first day. Weiss had, she insisted, earned her way to the position of CEO at the Schnee Dust Company. She crushed all rumors of nepotism within a week. Officially, her business acumen had proven her worth. Unofficially, she terrified everyone in the office, so they dared not cross her.

It was inevitable, really, that Ruby would turn to law enforcement. The toll on a hunter's body would pull enough muscles and break enough bones to have them out of active duty by around twenty-five, usually. Thirty, if you were lucky. It was the next step in helping the world, just on a smaller scale. The fact that her new home-away-from-home was a flying weapons platform packing riot gear and weapons-grade Dust didn't hurt, either.

Ruby awoke with a start. She checked her watch. 1300 hours. She had slept all morning, and then some. _Well,_ she thought as she tied her boots and shrugged on her duster, _I probably couldn't have gotten an appointment before lunch anyway._ She grabbed her bag and set out for the SDC headquarters. It was time to catch up with an old friend.

Ruby arrived at the towering monolith where a warrior of legendary skill spent her days. Most knew it as Schnee Tower, the heart of Vale's financial district.

"Take a number and leave your name on the list," the receptionist said coldly as Ruby approached her. "You'll be number seventy-two. When your number is called, you will be allowed to state your reason for your presence and schedule an appointment."

"I don't think you understand, I'm-"

"Number sixteen, please come the reception desk to schedule an appointment," Said the receptionist, ignoring her.

"Hey! I was talking! I'm here on police business." Several guilty-looking men with briefcases began gathering their things in a panic. "I need to speak with Weiss Schnee." The briefcase men doubled their packing speed, joined by some who had been looking smugly at them seconds before.

"All persons wishing to hold a personal interview with Miss Schnee must make an appointment at least six weeks in advance with a written recommendation from a Schnee company executive or a government official," The receptionist droned from behind her horn-rimmed glasses.

"Listen, Miss" -Ruby quickly scanned her name tag- "Gladys. I'm actually a personal friend of Miss Schnee's, and I really need to speak to her. Do you think that maybe you could just call her and ask?" The secretary stared back at her.

"Number sixteen, please come to the reception desk."

"Alright, listen. If you don't call Weiss Schnee right now, then-" She broke off as the elevator dinged open.

"Really, Ruby? Must you make a scene every time you want to talk to me? I have a phone, you know." The secretary went back to talking with the frustrated number sixteen.

"Of course I know," she replied meekly. "Definitely didn't forget after sleeping past noon that I just could have called you and set up a meeting."

"That sounds believable," Weiss deadpanned. "Gladys, have my assistant cancel my appointments for today."

"Why don't you just ask the assistant directly to do it?" Ruby asked.

"Because that would waste my time. In fact, explaining that it would waste time has taken more time than simply paging my assistant, so this was a wasteful conversation. What kind of 'police business' are you here for?"

"I'd prefer if we spoke in private."

"Alright then, up to my office."

And so they went. As they ascended the block of glass and steel in a clear elevator that circled the building as it rose, Ruby and Weiss exchanged the usual formalities one does when meeting a friend after an absence.

Once went into Weiss's office, a luxury space reminiscent of a bond villain's lair, they sat down to talk. A plate of cookies was brought out for Ruby. When Weiss turned back from accepting a cup of coffee from her assistant, the plate was clean.

"Alright, Ruby, what did you want to talk to me about. Not that I don't appreciate the visit, but I'm a busy woman, and you seemed quite insistent at the front desk."

"How did you know I was down there? The receptionist wouldn't put me through to you."

"When the internet is abuzz with the phrases 'crazy woman' and 'Schnee Tower', my people alert me that you are asking after me. It's been a disturbingly accurate prediction method."

"Well, getting to the point," said Ruby, desperately trying to change the subject, "I need to ask you about some unusual Dust I found at a crime scene."

"Before you say anything, as CEO of the Schnee dust corporation anything I say in this interview is strictly off the record. I admit to nothing and you can't prove anything." She smiled. "Sorry, but I have to say that to all the cops and reporters when they come knocking."

"Back to the Dust. It's cloudy, like something's mixed in with it. The guys in the lab say it stores energy more efficiently, and that seems like something your company would be all over."

Weiss frowned. "I'm not supposed to divulge trade secrets but... I suppose I'll make an exception just this once. Because you're my friend, and also because I don't want you coming back in a month with a warrant."

They descended to floor 6B, which the computerized voice of the elevator helpfully informed Ruby was "Dust Specialized Reprocessing. Secure Access only." The room they walked into was a warehouse full of Dust in varying cuts and colors, but all with one shared trait: they were darkened, just like the ones Ruby had found. A group of attractive young men and women sat at a round table, staring intently at a crystal. Within moments, the fog within cleared and the Dust was put on a conveyor belt to be processed. A new crystal was brought from the shelf and the people began again.

"Sometimes, when refining Dust from ore, there are impurities. True, they do burn last longer and work harder than what we usually produce, but there are side effects. It feeds off of a person's aura, makes them tired and irrational. There's some scientific name for it that I haven't bothered learning, but my associates here in Reprocessing just call it Dark. I know that it would be a very stupid idea to carry around an explosive mineral of an unknown variety, so I assume that you brought the sample of said explosive mineral you were talking about?"

"Well, when you put it that way...yes. I brought it." She reached into her bag and pulled out some completely average Burn. "Oh! Weiss, I promise it was like the stuff on the shelves earlier, but now-"

"Now it's had at least twelve hours to feed off of your aura. That's why you slept until noon and why you were so short with Gladys. You'll be back to normal soon now that you've eaten."

"I still don't understand how somebody other then those with licenses got ahold of this Dark stuff."

"Now Ruby, I'm a businesswoman. How in the world would _I_ know how gangs got ahold of certain restricted substances?" Weiss grinned. "Come with me." They switched floors and came to a room with irregular walls and a self-sealing door. "To muffle sound, you see." The phone in Ruby's pocket sparked and sputtered

"Ow! What did you just do?"

"Electromagnetic field. No transmissions in or out while it's active. I think you should start with the Malachite twins. Not that I'd ever say this in a context where I couldn't deny quotation of myself as slanderous lies, but my father used them as a fence for black market goods. If you want to find out where something is coming from or going to, they're the ones to find." The door opened and the pair returned to the the lobby. "Oh, Ruby? It was nice to see you again."

_Please review, if there's something I could be doing better than I'd honestly love to hear it. Here's hoping that none of us wasted our time reading or writing this story._


	3. Info Dump

Back at _Leviathan_, the off-duty officers were made to watch a presentation on some new riot control drones, top of the line. Under normal circumstances Ruby would be thrilled to learn about a new weapon, but today she was preoccupied. Weiss's assistant had forwarded her the public documents on the Schnee Corporation's testing with Dark. The results, at least those not marked as classified, were unsettling. The slideshow at the front of the room began as Ruby looked surreptitiously at her laptop.

"The latest in public defense technology, provided by our generous benefactors at..." the Chief began. Ruby was reading the test logs. Everyone exposed to Dark began showing physical symptoms after a few hours. Irritability, exhaustion, and headaches were the first signs of contact. Within days, subjects began requesting pain medication, but none asked to be removed from the project. "...The Mark XI 'Clarent' series of semi-autonomous riot suppression devices..." After a month, seven of the fifty subjects were comatose. The remainder were belligerent and sometimes refused food. After three months, all subjects were forcibly removed from exposure to Dark. Those who had left early showed no long-term effects. Others were not so lucky.

Removing the subjects from the Dark was akin to holding an intervention. The people refused to admit a change in behavior or physical health as a result of prolonged usage. "...while the XI-C requires no pilot or remote operator..." A group of (previously) model employees had broken into the lab and attempted to reclaim the Dark. Physical withdrawal symptoms were common and one healthy thirty-year-old participant died of heart failure a few weeks later. "...modular in nature, with a variety of crowd control..."

One document was a notice about the end of testing. DISCONTINUED was stamped reassuringly in bold red at the bottom of the page. Other files explained the purification process and the health regimen for the people she had seen at Schnee Tower. Each one was dismissed after two weeks and allowed to return after six months. A rotating staff of active employees were given a large bonus for aiding in the cleaning of Dust and for the signing of a nondisclosure agreement. "...capable of effective operation even with one manipulator crippled..."

The final page was a suggestion that Dark be turned at a profit towards less savory distributors. One group listed was Malachite and Malachite, LLC. _Those must be the twins Weiss mentioned_, thought Ruby. At the bottom of the memo, scribbled by hand, "Absolutely not. Not only would it be wildly illegal and unethical, think of what would happen to our image if the story leaked. Unacceptable risks. -W."

As the presentation wound down, Ruby did some data mining and found a nightclub owned by the Malachite twins. She noted that they operated in the same district the Hood kid she nabbed the other night lived. Maybe she would pay him a visit and find out if the Malachites worked on the street level with everyday punks or if they were in the business of organized crime.

As she prepared to go to the seedier part of Vale, Ruby realized that she wasn't going to accomplish anything dressed in the floor-length brown trench coat that she had taken to wearing since joining the police. She had made quite a name for herself amongst the criminal underground, and people went running when she walked by. She dropped by her apartment to find something that wouldn't frighten the locals. So, as Ruby dug through her closet looking for something that would help her appear reasonably anonymous, her eyes settled on an old article from back in her Beacon days. Luckily, she hadn't grown more than a few inches since she was fifteen, and it fit like a glove. Pulling the familiar red hood over her head, Ruby set off for downtown.

The Hood residence wasn't quite what Ruby had expected. Instead of an apartment, it was a small house, the ten-square-foot lawn littered with children's toys. Ruby went and knocked on the door. After some yelling from inside, a familiar face opened the door.

"Oh come on, you said I wasn't arrested anymore!" Rob's hair now had a pale blue streak running through it, complementing his similarly colored eyes. A pair of squealing kids ran through the hallway behind him.

"Robby! Who is it?" squawked a woman from inside.

"Just-just a friend, mom!" he yelled back. "What do you want?"

"I was actually coming to follow up on the burglary investigation. I need to know whose idea it was." She said, uneasy about visiting the teenager at his home.

"I can't talk about this right now. I've got chores to do and my mom doesn't exactly know about how I spend my free time, got it?" He began to close the door.

"Wait!" Ruby exclaimed, holding it open with her foot. "Were the Malachite twins involved?"

Rob paled. "I don't know where you heard about them, but I think it'd be best for everyone if you just forgot that name right now." Ruby let him close the door in her face before turning and walking the rest of the way to the club.

Glancing at the windows, Ruby felt a vague recognition of the club's architecture. Once inside, she sidled up to the bar and asked the barkeep where the owners were.

"Second floor, lady, but they gotta invite you up there. I'll let 'em know that you're callin'."

"Ha!" came the gravelly cough of a middle-aged man from a few seats down. "Those girls won't give you what you want unless that coat's made of gold, sweetie. I used to own this place, y'know. Then that damn blonde came in one night, smashed up the dance floor and the help. I shell out thousands to get the place and the people fixed up, then the twins buy it out from under me and I gotta cash out at a loss."

Ruby listened to his story with interest. "Why didn't you just keep running the club like before?" She asked, curious.

"Because those girls run the inner city. Everyone without a religion or a corporation works for them, in some way. Their muscle keeps the shops running and keeps the cops out. All under the radar, of course, nothing official. Hell, they don't even pay their own workers in cash, just wink at the right people in the right ways. It keeps order on the streets, that's for sure," the man rambled.

"Hey, lady," called the barkeep. "Up the stairs and to the right. Leave any guns at the door."

Ruby climbed the glass stairs up to the second floor. Naturally, she didn't leave her service pistol in the cardboard box marked 'GUNS' by the door. One wall of the room she entered was the window side of a one-way mirror overlooking the dance floor. The other walls were covered in framed newspaper articles about up-and-comers in the business world as well as arrest headlines of famous bureaucrats. Across a table that stood lengthwise down the rectangular room sat two attractive young women.

"We're busy people, so make it quick." Said one of the twins, who were dressed the same.

"I'm here to talk to you about your supply of Dark. Running a bit thin, is it?"

"You're not our usual contact." Observed the other twin disinterestedly.

"No, but I've come to let you know that we'll be dropping the price considerably," Ruby lied. "and we're going to be moving in bulk now. Where do you want it delivered?"

The Malachites looked at each other, considering whether or not to trust this stranger. Eventually the one on the right nodded

"The same place as always." Said the one on the left, irritated.

"Pretend I'm an idiot. Write it down for me."

One of the twins scrawled an address on a slip of paper, folded it, and slid it across the table. Ruby took it and left, smiling.

Once she left, Ruby's phone buzzed in her pocket. Unknown number. She answered it.

"Hey Red, you wanted to talk about the job?" It was Rob Hood.

"Yeah, I-How did you get my personal number?"

"Please, like I couldn't find out something that simple. I told the station I was your cousin. You wanted to talk to me about the robbery, I'm willing to talk, but you've gotta give me something in return, got it? You got a place we can meet to talk about this?"

Ruby looked at the number and street name in her hand. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Ruby and Rob decided to meet there at midnight, partially for Rob to sell some information, partially for Ruby to stake the place out. It was going to be an eventful night.

_So there's chapter three. Sorry about the delay between chapters, it was exam week. I feel weird about the formatting of the quotes in the first bit. I was trying to convey the seminar going on in the background while Ruby was reading but it kind of looks like I'm quoting the files she was reading. Don't forget to write a review if you've got a suggestion to make!_


	4. Event Horizon

Act Two

Event Horizon

Ruby sat on a hill overlooking the warehouse the Malachite twins had told her to deliver a shipment of Dark. She checked her watch. 11:45. Rob had said that he would arrive at midnight, so she needed to pass the time. It was a work night, so Yang would probably be doing something for the school. Or she would be out clubbing, it was hard to guess that sort of thing when it came to Yang.

She had radioed in her location and expected time until she checked in again, but hadn't explained what she was doing. The chief had a good sense of what his people were like, and he knew that his officers wouldn't cross any lines. So, he basically gave them free rein as long as they kept everything off the record. As long as the office could write somebody off as a rogue element, they were free to operate covertly.

Ruby reviewed the Dark test files again, trying to decide whether a criminal syndicate would want it for power or for its addictive properties. Her train of thought was broken by Rob's approach. He must have spotted her from down below. Ruby frowned. She hadn't planned to be that visible, and was put off by her own lack of practice.

"So this is a stakeout, huh? Guess I'm cool with that. I'm gonna talk you through what I know about Malachite LLC, and in exchange you're gonna owe me a favor in the future, got it?" He didn't give Ruby time to respond before continuing, "There's Melanie, who handles the business end of things, and Miltia, who handles... well, the business end of things, if you catch my meaning. They play the long game. Most of your patrol routes have been mapped out, so they know when and where you're going to be. They took their sweet time coming out into the open, waiting for you guys to have more important things to worry about. Not that they do anything technically illegal." Ruby looked at him quizzically. "No money changes through their hands, no contraband is moved, but they're watching. Nothing happens without their go-ahead, and nobody is smart or powerful enough to do anything about it. It's hell on the economy, at least if you want to make an honest living. My mom's got it kinda rough, y'know? Sorry, you don't wanna hear my sob story. They've even got a bogus church set up in the slums. I'm pretty sure that some kind of human trafficking goes on there, 'cause no way are there enough donations to finance all those 'mission trips'. But hey, maybe the cops will shuffle things up a bit, change things, huh? Maybe..." He was cut off by motion at the warehouse below. "Whoah, what's that?"

Ruby looked. A group of goons with assault rifles had arrived in jeeps and milled around, but the main attraction was at the center of the complex. Stomping through the grounds, carrying a shipping crate, was one of the robots Ruby had seen at the tech demo today. Well, not the same kind exactly, but obviously a similar line. It consisted of an orblike cockpit, or CPU in this one's case, surrounded by seven double-jointed appendages on ball and socket joints, like elbows that could go both ways. it walked on three limbs and carried the crate with two. The others sported military-grade chainguns.

"Goddamn, where do they get all this cool stuff?" asked Rob excitedly.

"Go home, kid, I need to shut this operation down."

"I ain't going anywhere. If it's your problem then it's my problem now. I'm not gonna pass up a chance to make a cop owe me even more than before." He reached across his back and pulled out a submachine gun with a cylindrical magazine. Before she could stop him, Rob was already making his way down the hill. Ruby quickly followed, unholstering her nine-millimeter.

The two ducked behind a storage crate, sizing up the opposition. eight, as well as the robot. Written on the side in bold letters was what must have been the model name, EXCALIBUR. Ruby eyed Rob's gun warily before they prepared to head into the fray.

"Don't worry, it's not lethal. Consider it a high power stun gun," He whispered.

Ruby tensed, preparing to move towards the nearest thug, but Rob started first. Swinging his gun around, he loosed a burst towards the men. A hail of short flechettes flung one backwards. As he stood up, stunned, Rob squeezed another trigger. Lightning arced between the spikes and the man collapsed a second time, unconscious. As the others began to flick the safeties off of their guns, Ruby attacked from behind. A flurry of pistol-whipping, she incapacitated one and disarmed another before Rob stepped back in.

He swung the gun in an arc and the grip rotated until it was parallel with the barrel. The muzzle trifurcated and electricity played across the end of Rob's short club. One quick thinker stopped fumbling with his gun and lunged for Rob's, but only received the equivalent of a cattle prod to the chest for his troubles. He and Ruby stopped most of the mooks before they could let off a shot, but now they had bigger worries.

The Excalibur drone turned to face them, storage crate discarded, guns spinning up. Taking cover behind a concrete wall, the two stopped to review some notable flaws in their plan.

"I thought you had a plan for stopping the robot!"

"I thought you did, and that's why you rushed down here before I had a chance to think of one!"

"Well, now what are we gonna do?"

"Why don't you come up with a plan? If it's my problem it's yours, isn't it? Wait, where'd the robot go?"

It had, in fact, gone into standby mode. Luckily for Ruby and Rob, the Malachite employees had forgotten to charge it. Excalibur was actually a high performance, low efficiency model of combat drone used in wartime. It was intended to be run by a human pilot with minimal targeting assistance from a computer. However, as the training program for mech piloting was long and arduous, this particular unit had been modified to accept a computer pilot. The tax on its battery was such that unless actively commanded by a human to continue operation, it would go into standby mode if no targets were detected in the immediate area. Less fortunate, however, was the loud and obnoxious distress beacon that activated within forty seconds of standby mode's activation if no manual prompt was given. It took exactly thirty-nine seconds for Ruby and Rob to hazard a look around the corner at the robot. After the klaxon began, they beat a hasty retreat. As Ruby approached her squad car, she saw Rob making for an alleyway.

"Do you need a ride home?"

"Nah, I can walk."

"Is it safe this late?"

"If it's not, Joyeuse will help me out." He smiled, patting the flechette launcher on his back as he disappeared into the shadows.

As Ruby set off for home, she realized that almost no progress had actually been made on the case. Troubled, she resolved to learn everything there was to know about what actually went on in the Vale slums. She would start tomorrow with the church Rob had mentioned.

_Malachite and Malachite, LLC_

Melanie Malachite got off the phone with the window repairman after setting an appointment for tomorrow. Miltia had thrown a chair from their office to the dance floor when she heard about the incident at their warehouse. So the woman in red was onto them, was she? No matter. Their plans had come to far for some beat cop to stop them now.

_The Hood Household_

Rob Hood climbed in through his window, hiding Joyeuse deep within his closet as always. He looked irritatedly at the empty magazine in his hand. Flechettes and electric Dust weren't as cheap as one would think, and he couldn't afford to be screwing around on school nights, flirting with danger and helping the police. He put the magazine in one of his drawers to recycle later. No use wasting perfectly good metal when you could just refill it.

_Salvation Church_

Ovis A. Umbra prepared the next tribute. They had to be weakened in mind before they could feed the Dark. It was usually easy to infuse the Dust with Dark in their normal stock. The homeless were good for the weakness they required. Yes, some had to be broken before the Dark could grow, but what did it matter? They hadn't been chosen. Not like Ovis had.

_Aaaaaand that's chapter four. Hope you liked it! I promise the next fight won't be such a tease, we'll have actual giant robot fights. Don't forget to leave a constructive review if you've got feelings about my writing!_

_EDIT: I've realized too late that my intended breaks between POV's don't translate into the story, so I'm adding italicized location names and will be noting the debit on every chapter containing it. Hope this helps._


	5. Fifty Calibur

The police are required to only use state-registered firearms in official operations, so Crescent Rose only came out of its box once a month for cleaning. A gun of that scale wasn't really feasible when dealing with people instead of monsters, but rounds that could punch through metal might be useful against a five meter tall death machine.

So Ruby dragged Crescent Rose out of its drawer in the kitchen (She was never very organized) and loaded in a fresh magazine, relishing the _clunk_ of it locking into place. grabbing a couple spares, she slung the rifle on the back of her waist as she had for so many years and made for the church Rob had mentioned, which she looked up the night before.

It was a strange church, that was for sure. Everything about it seemed off, almost too obviously a scam for it to possibly be a scam. The advertisements for it denoted countless mission trips to exotic places, the mission statement apparently being "A better life for yourself and others." At no point was religion mentioned, nor any kind of donation requested. "Salvation" was the only name Ruby could find it listed under. She was good at reading people, though. If anything was really fishy then whoever claimed to be in charge would show some sign, she thought.

She caught a bus downtown, hiding Crescent Rose under her cloak. She reviewed the design documents for the drones at the police presentation yesterday, as Excalibur's were military and therefore classified. She could probably shoot through the armor plating now, assuming the armor for the civil service model, Clarent, had not been downgraded from the military one. The additional two arms had been unexpected, given that Clarent only had five. The attachments weren't limited to guns. It only needed three legs to remain upright while the remainder could be guns, swords, rocket launchers, some proposed weapons even sprayed aerosol Dust and ignited it, not unlike a flamethrower.

Before she could continue reading, the bus arrived a few blocks down the street from Salvation. She got off and walked the rest of the way. At the door, she was greeted by an old man in a Pastor's black robes. His eyes lit up when he saw her and he invited her inside immediately.

"So, Mr..." she began, realizing she had forgotten to ask for his name.

"Father Umbra, child. No need to speak, I know that you've come to volunteer!"

"Actually, I just had some questions about the church."

"Oh. A school project, then?" Ruby appreciated the comparison, but either he was flattering her or his eyesight was going. Judging by the milkiness in his left eye, she would guess the latter.

"Something like that."

"Well, what would you like to know, child?"

"These mission trips of yours seem quite expensive. How in the world do you manage them in such poor part of the city?"

He looked skywards, a knowing smile on his face. "We are provided for. That is all that needs to be said."

"If I were to volunteer, where would I go to do that?" Ruby tentatively asked. He beamed at her like a child at Christmas.

"Oh, I knew you'd come around! Such a strong, kind soul, I can tell just from the look of you. You'll be perfect for Salvation's latest project."

"Which would be...?"

"Oh, wouldn't that ruin the surprise?"

"I guess," She said, not wanting to press the issue. "You know, not many people return from these mission trips. You wouldn't happen to know anything about why that is, would you?"

"Most people just never want to stop giving. They commit themselves fully to our purpose. Helping those in need, has there ever been a higher calling? I think not," He said, answering his own question.

He was distracted by a thin, lost-looking young man at the door. As Father Umbra strode off to speak with him, Ruby snuck around to a door marked CHURCH EMPLOYEES ONLY. It lead to a flight of stairs going down. Checking to see that the clergyman was not looking, she descended. At the bottom were rows and rows of boxes marked "Salvation" stacked on wooden pallets. She opened the nearest one to find that it was full of crystalline Dust.

No, not Dust. Dark. Resealing the box, Ruby furiously retreated up the stairs, stopping at the top to catch her breath. She was light-headed and woozy, just from a few seconds' contact. There had been hundreds of boxes full of the addictive and dangerous phenomenon, stacked up under the church. Before she could gather her thoughts, Father Umbra opened the door.

Ruby quickly explained that she had been looking for the bathroom, which Umbra seemed to believe. He gave her a pamphlet and informed her that unless she wished to attend mass then it was time for her to leave. She thanked him and hurried out to the sidewalk.

Across the street, perched on a stoop with a grim expression on his face, sat Rob Hood. Ruby crossed the road and approached him. "You've gotta be the most conspicuous cop I've ever met. You turn up everywhere the Malachites operate like a bad penny, bringing them bad luck, and now you've brought a sniper rifle into a church! You'll want to leave through an alley. You were noticed, of course, when you walked into a church carrying heavy ordinance, got it? They're on the streets, waiting. If you go through the alley on my right and climb the fire escape, you can make your way across the rooftops and out of their net. Good luck, Red." He stood and left down the street.

Ruby watched the corners for a moment, looking for anybody who seemed unusual or hostile. At first she thought that Rob had been mistaken, that nobody was coming to get her. Then she heard the stomping. Excalibur rounded a corner, combat ready. In addition to the chain guns she had seen last night, one arm had been fitted with a machete-like appendage, and the other with a grenade launcher. What Ruby couldn't see was that the AI core had been stripped from the inside and replaced with the original manual controls. Miltiades Malachite was the day's operator, and she was out for blood.

Ruby made the decision to stand and fight, unfurling Crescent Rose and moving to the center of the street. The civilians who had milled about earlier had wisely fled, a small group of thugs holding a perimeter near each intersection. The guns spun up as Ruby and Miltia tensed their trigger fingers, waiting for the other to make a move. Ruby got there a fraction of a second first.

A flash of red, Ruby had crossed the street in the blink of an eye. Miltia, furious at her slow guns, swiveled the chassis to sit in line with Ruby. They continued this back-and-forth until one of the guns made a noise that Ruby had been waiting for. _Click._ She pumped three rounds into one of the legs' joints, making a sizable mark. A second before it was too late, she threw herself away from an inbound explosive.

Ruby fumbled with her radio and tried calling in backup. Nothing. Somebody must have been jamming the radio signal in the area. The empty gun dropped from its mounting on the drone's manipulator, quickly followed by the other. Bolstered by its additional two legs, Excalibur quickly closed the distance between itself and Ruby, who decided that now would be a good time to take the exit Rob had advised. Hurtling down the alley and up the building, Ruby stopped on the roof to reload. A quick glance behind her revealed something entirely unpleasant.

Excalibur, now wielding only the machete arm, had somehow pulled itself up one of the buildings. The cockpit slid open to reveal the grinning Miltia, a murderous glint in her eyes. Ruby turned to rush away only to find that there was not as much distance between herself and the combat drone as there would have been if she was fifteen again. Barely dodging the wicked blade as it crashed down to the roof next to her, she leapt directly into one of the robot's open and grasping hands. Miltia moved her struggling form so that they were eye to eye. "This is what you get for" was all she managed before Ruby had maneuvered Crescent Rose's blade into a joint and fired, cleanly severing the arm holding her.

Shrieking in anger, Miltia piloted the drone after the fleeing officer. Taking every opportunity to attack, she was thwarted by her own ponderous enormity. After missing and striking the ground Ruby stood on milliseconds previously. As she chased Ruby across the rooftop, she failed to realize what Ruby had some time ago: A few metric tons of steel is not something you want to be when you're breaking holes in a one foot thick floor. The beginning of understanding spread across her face once she heard the roof creak below her. She probably got the idea by the time she reached the seventh floor.

Ruby wisely chose to return to _Justice _for the night, deciding that perhaps she wouldn't show her face in the daytime around that are any more. Of course, it would help that now she could count on Rob, to an extent. Or maybe he just didn't want to waste the favor she owed him by letting her die. Speaking of favors, it was about time for her to call one in.

_I had some fun writing this one. A few things will make more sense in later chapters, trust me. Also, last chapter had some formatting issues because at the end the POV bits didn't have any separation. Something didn't transfer right from Pages to Word to uploading, so sorry about that. Don't forget to leave a review if you've got anything to say! _

_Also, I really hate writing dialogue. It's the formatting, not the content. I don't know if I should make a line break every time the character speaking changes or if there's some better way to do it, but I just hate having to look at it._


	6. Acceleration

As she walked on sore legs back to _Leviathan_'s nearest berth, Ruby reflected that she had been to cocky in her investigation. Had it not been for luck and shoddy construction the last fight would have ended poorly for her. As Ruby sat to wait for _Leviathan_'s arrival, she removed her cloak, saddened by the tears in it that she would need to mend later. It was obvious by then that if she was going to do something about the Malachites then she would need help.

Help came in the form of a phone call following a news report. The official story was that a gas main had blown in an apartment building, mostly destroying it as well as parts of the adjacent road. Ruby saw it on one of the TVs in the station's break room just before the phone rang.

"Have you been blowing up buildings without me?"

"Good to hear from you too, Yang." said Ruby, exasperated not only by Yang's lack of phone etiquette but also by the fact that she had been figured out so quickly.

"That's not the answer to the question I asked, but yeah, I really should check in more often." Yang had retained her traditional blend of light and dark moods over the years, no matter how much else had changed. "So why'd you destroy an apartment building? And don't try to say you didn't, you know you're a bad liar."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she answered, lying badly, "but if I did, then how would you know that I had?"

"Heh, please. I'm not giving away my contacts to a cop, even if she is my sister. You still haven't answered my question, by the way."

Ruby relented, explaining her situation to Yang as best as she could. As the tale wound to a close, the older of the two unveiled a piece of profound wisdom.

"Welp, pretty sure you're screwed."

"That doesn't help me, Yang."

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, you've got a crime syndicate packing military hardware out for your blood because you know too much, you're in it real deep. If only you had some sort of kickass older mentor figure in your life who could pull some strings in the criminal underground and take some of the heat off of you, then that would really be helpful," she said unsubtly.

"I would love that, Yang, but it doesn't address the main problem, that of the addictive poisonous explosive fuel that they're trafficking, as well as the unsettling news that they can cover up the fact that they destroyed a building."

"Yeah, I see what you mean. Tell you what, you promise not to die in the next three hours and I'll see what I can dig up on where they're shipping that Dark stuff. Talk to you in a few hours," she said before hanging up on Ruby.

As Ruby went to grab a nap, she was sidetracked by a group of policemen rushing down the hall. She stopped one and asked him what the commotion was about.

"One of those cool new robots we were getting, it was gonna deploy today and someone jacked it. Ripped out all of our tracking equipment and made a getaway. We're gonna scrub the area, find out where it went. Gotta go before the trail cools off." He ran down the hallway after the others.

Ruby gulped. She could name one group off the top of her head who would have need of a replacement combat drone. However, there wasn't much left to do but wait. For her, at least.

_The Hood Household_

Rob Hood arrived home from a friend's place to find that his house was being watched. A closer examination revealed that only the front of the house was in the line of sight of the two incredibly conspicuous men on the adjacent street corners wearing black coats with the obvious bulges of guns beneath. The rear, however was perfectly unguarded. So, after checking that the two men hadn't seen him, he went around back and climbed in the window.

Sadly, his expert planning had not accounted for the armed thug already inside.

What followed was a perfectly cordial conversation, courtesy of the Malachites, containing the many colorful and vividly described things that would occur if Rob were to associate with Officer Rose ever again. The list contained such gems as his house being burned to the ground and his family being run out of town, to begin. The man, a broad smile on his face, left Rob deathly pale and paralyzed with fear.

_Somewhere Downtown_

The unfathomably deep web of contacts Yang had managed to accumulate over the years had, surprisingly, let her down. Almost nobody was willing to say a word about the Malachites or anything related to their plans. Almost nobody.

So, through a series of increasingly tangentially related whispers, lies, and muttered locations, she ended up in one of the seediest bars she had ever seen, holding a man with a hook hand in a chokehold. This was, strangely, how a disproportionately large number of her nights ended. Thirty more seconds had led to a sharp loosening of her new associate's tongue, as he revealed that he had been aiding the Malachites with something she couldn't be sure was related, but certainly was worth reporting. He and his employees had been catching Grimm and bringing them, covertly, to the Malachites' safehouses, preparing for something big.

She dropped him with a thud. As she left, she took the time to put the slightly scorched door back in the frame before grabbing her phone and calling Ruby.

_Justice_

Ruby leapt to her feet, phone still in hand as she threw her cloak around herself.

"Slow down, sis, don't do what it sounds like you're doing. We'll do this by the book. Grimm are involved now, so that means it's under the jurisdiction of the huntsmen."

"You know I'm not going to wait for them to do whatever they're planning, Yang." she said as she signed a bulletproof vest out of the armory.

"I don't want you risking your life being reckless like you always do. This is different. You can't do this on your own, Ruby, you need professional backup." She was, as a matter of fact, partially correct, just not about whose help would be needed.

"I'll call you back, I've got someone else on the line. Hello?"

"Are you kidding me, cop? You need to be a little less obvious about who you associate with, and don't think your blonde friend went unnoticed. The more you act, the more the twins suspect me, got it?"

"Well, that shouldn't be a problem tomorrow."

"I take it that doesn't mean that you're closing the investigation."

"You've got that right. You in?"

Rob knew that his decision was important, not just for himself, but for a bunch of innocent people as well. He took his time in choosing. When he finally decided, he realized that Ruby had hung up thirty seconds ago when he didn't answer her question.

_Salvation Church_

Hours passed, and Ruby watched the patrols around the church. She saw a gap and went for it, darting across the street undetected, sliding into an alcove in the wall. She made her way inside and down to the basement she had seen on her last visit. As far as she could tell, the Dark hadn't been moved yet.

Making her way through the complex, which was far more expansive than she had originally thought, she came upon a group of thugs standing in a rough semicircle around the stolen Clarent drone.

"Come on, you damn machine, upon up!"

"Unauthorized civilian. Please cease attempting to access registered police hardware through hostile measures.

"Rrrrgh! Stupid robot!" Said the thug, kicking the drone and immediately regretting it.

Ruby made to move deeper into the complex, looking for any kind of computer records, when she heard the sound of metal on metal behind her as a mook drew his machete. She spun around, fumbling for a weapon as he brought down the razored, and winced for what she assumed would be a lethal blow.

It never came. She opened her eyes to see Rob, trifurcated club locked with the machete, grin slyly as he squeezed the trigger. Lightning shot down the blade and through the man's arm, knocking him unconscious. He reached a hand out to pull Ruby up.

"So what's the plan, cop?" he said as he helped her to hide to slumbering thug.

"I have a name, you know. You can call me Officer Rose."

"Yeah, just a friendly warning, that's not going to happen, got it?"

"Alright then, call me Ruby."

"Better. I think we might not get ourselves killed doing this, how about you?"

"Well, a girl can dream."

End of Act Two

_The end of an act? But that can only mean that we're coming to the climax of the story! There's one more act and then an epilogue, bonus points if you can guess their names (Hint: They have to do with black holes). I'm terribly sorry about the delay, but we had finals this week so I couldn't afford to spend any time not studying. I hope you'll understand, dear readers. I'm also sorry that I spent a chapter with very few interesting things happening, I tried to keep it more lively with Yang. Don't forget to leave a review if you have something to say!_

_Edited for POV and location changes._


	7. Into The Depths

Act Three

Singularity

_B1_

"Really, though, you do have a plan, right?" Said Rob hopefully.

"Yes. The plan is that we wait for them to stop trying to access that police drone, then I put you inside it and lock it down."

"Okay, and then-wait, back up, what was that last part?"

"They've got way more people than I expected. I'm going to put you somewhere safe and unlock the drone when it's time to leave." It was clear that Ruby had no plans of letting anyone but herself come to harm.

"Fine," said Rob, not intending to stay put at all, "I'll stay put."

A few minutes later the thugs, in their nondescript charcoal outfits, abandoned the machine where it sat, planning on returning with welding gear to get it open. Ruby and Rob moved towards it, ducking to and from large storage crates, eyes peeled for guards. They reached the drone without incident.

"Okay, here goes," said Ruby as she pulled her badge and a list of written commands out of her pocket. She flashed her badge at the drone, which scanned it with a green light.

"Authorized user detected. Please input commands, Officer Rose." Said the drone in a calm, clear woman's voice.

Ruby moved Rob into the line of its scanning probe. "Accept new user. Grant access to essential systems. Grant access to weapons systems. Grant access to locomotive systems." Rob grinned. "Suspend access to all systems except in case of administrative command or state of emergency." Rob's smile died.

"Understood. Please put on the operator's uniform provided with the shipment of this unit." Ruby looked around in confusion and spotted a white jumpsuit lying on the ground nearby. She tossed it to Rob.

He unfurled it and saw that, in addition to a recently ironed-on police badge, the back half of the suit was covered in asymmetric pale blue glyphs. "This looks like I'm going to look stupid. Do I have to wear it?"

"For best performance and use of quick-load system, the operator's uniform is recommended."

"Uuuuuungh. Fine." He pulled it on over his clothes. "I was right. I do look stupid." He was, in fact, right.

"Stop whining. Clarent, input command. Allow new user access."

"Understood." The soothing female voice responded.

The shell of the drone, painted a police blue and polished to a mirror sheen, cracked open with a hiss. "To initialize first time quick-load program, please stand an arm's length away from the cockpit, facing away. Keep your feet should width apart and hold your arms out straight, palms facing downwards." Rob did so, still scowling about his new outfit.

She same scanning light flashed over him, eventually lining up with the patterns on his back. After a moment, the computer chirped, "User profile committed to memory. Initializing quick-load. This may pinch a bit." A set of spindly metal claws emerged from recesses in the cockpit, lifting Rob bodily despite his flailings and setting him gently down in the pilot's seat.

"That was...different," Rob said, embarrassed by his brief panic after being picked up.

"Computer, seal cockpit. Do not allow current user to operate any systems except in case of emergency. Understood?"

"Affirmative. Sealing."

"Hang on Ruby, I'm not sure this is the best plan." The shining steel door began to close." I'm just saying, you know, you might need me." His eyes darted back and forth between the door and Ruby. "Hey, how do I breathe in" His thought was cut of by the sealed door. "Well. So computer, you know any good waiting games?"

Ruby stalked down the dimly lit warehouse and paused to take stock of the layout. She could hear the whirring of elevators that indicated there were multiple levels. It was about 2500 feet long and 1000 across. She started walking, eyes open for patrols. Eventually she came to a staircase with no visible guards and moved towards it. Seeing no one, she took the stairs. She looked down the stairwell for guards and saw that the facility was at least five stories deep. She began climbing down.

_B4_

Melanie Malachite paced in her underground office, furious. At Miltia, for her recklessness. At herself, for being fooled. At Ruby, for threatening to bring down everything she had worked for. Miltia was in the hospital. With a shattered femur and cracked collarbone, she had gotten off lucky, in Melanie's opinion.

They had to accelerate their plans. The police were obviously getting close, and that simply wouldn't do. She kept calm, though. They had Ovis, their ace in the hole.

_B5_

Ovis Aries Umbra was twenty-three when his life changed. He worked for the Schnee Dust Corporation. Unbeknownst to Weiss and stricken from the official records, the Schnee Corporation had been working with Dark for far longer than anybody thought.

Ovis was a person of no import in the company, and worked the machines carrying crates of Dust and Dark through their warehouses. One day a box dropped, the Dark within exploded, and he was struck blind.

But that was not the end of his story. He could see beyond the physical, into a person's soul. He became obsessed with Dark and its effect on Aura, and came to build a small following based on his ideas about how to strengthen one's Aura.

What only he knew was what he saw and heard after the accident. A blinding light followed by gaping darkness, except for the most beautiful and terrible creature he had ever seen. It spoke to him of his future, the Dark, and how only he could lead the people of his world out of the darkness...and into the Dark.

When the Malachites found him, he was barely scraping out an existence on the street. But they offered him a chance to spread his ministry in exchange for everything he knew of the Dark, as well as his silence, for a time. His guardian angels, and all of their plans about to come to fruition.

_B1_

"Alright, you hunk of junk, let's pop that lid!" Rob perked up his head at the noise. The thugs were approaching, their lieutenant now wearing a welding mask and hauling a propane tank. He clicked his welding torch on.

"Uh, Clarent, is this an emergency yet?"

"No. He has not made a direct hostile movement against this unit. Perhaps he intends to threaten me into unsealing." The thug touched the white-blue flame against the smooth hull.

"ALERT! ALERT! STATE OF PERSONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED!" The drone _vroomed_ into a standing position, knocking the thug to the floor. "SAFETY RESTRAINTS DISABLED! SEVEN UNITS DESIGNATED AS HOSTILE OR HAVING HOSTILE INTENT! THIS UNIT IS UNDER ATTACK!" The thugs began backing away.

"You wanna get these guys gone?"

"Affirmative, user." The Clarent leapt into action. With no weapons to speak of, it lifted and threw the two closest thugs at their leader.

"Kickass! Do I get to drive?"

"You have not passed proper safety certification. Until you have undergone a standard field training course, I cannot authorize you to use this unit's manual controls."

"Awww..." He said before Clarent pulled a metal shelving unit around a thug, trapping him. It lifted a crate above its head, poised to throw, and two remaining thugs raised their arms in surrender. The last one fainted. Clarent placed them neatly in an empty dumpster before closing the lid and twisting the lock shut in a surprisingly delicate motion. "You know, robot. I think we're gonna get along just fine."

"Would you like to begin a standard field training program?"

"There is literally no way I can say yes more to anything than that question."

"Understood. The Peacemaker series of combat drones has thirteen categories. I am of the fourth model of the thirteenth. To use an idiom in literal terms, this unit is top of the line."

"Is there any chance we can skip to the actual training portion of the lesson?"

Were the Clarent not an emotionless machine Rob would have sworn he heard a hint of annoyance in its voice. "Understood. Beginning safety program..."

_B2_

Of course, Ruby's plan involvedmore than just waltzing in and shooting the bad guys. She was going to take as many pictures as possible, copy anything she could from any computers she could find, and bring it all back to the base. Then they could come in with a warrant and grab anything too big for her to carry.

She emerged from the stairwell into another warehouse, just like the last with some minor differences. The air was thicker and warmer, as one could expect moving deeper underground. There were grease stains on the floor and the shelves were less tightly packed than the first floor, meaning that they were still stocking up or had begun to move out.

What looked like a car shop was situated in the corner. She stole glances at it as she moved across the floor and saw the twisted hulk that was once Excalibur. From what she could tell, four legs were operational-barely.

She snapped a picture-military hardware was definitely worth a police investigation-and moved on. As she ran from shelf to shelf, dodging patrols, she reflected on how much easier life had been as a huntress. Well, easier wasn't really the word. Simpler, for sure. Grimm would never hatch conspiracies and smuggle dangerous substances. That was their one redeeming quality.

_B4_

As Melanie Malachite stalking through the halls of the fourth basement, she reflected on the caged Grimm nearby. They were far easier to deal with than meddling police officers. Not nearly as smart. Grimm would never interfere with your conspiracies and smuggling of dangerous substances. That was one of the many qualities she appreciated about them.

Wild, uncontrolled, chaotic. All things the Melanie needed in the coming days. A storm was coming to Vale, and she intended to be its eye.

_I'm really sorry about the long delays lately. I started writing this during Christmas holiday when I didn't have homework and now I've got a lot more actual work to do. I really want to keep making this, though, just please be patient. I hope that you're still enjoying the story, all ten of you who kept reading this far, and don't forget to review if you think you've got something worth saying!_

_EDIT: Apparently it's impossible to put a line of hyphens between pov changes to distinguish them on this site, so it looked more confusing than it should have. Sorry bout that._


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